Matt Sorum interview from 1998

Recommended Posts

Interview with Matt Sorum published in Belgrade-based Yugoslavian rock magazine Rock Express in in mid-1998.

Just a note. There is little confusion in the first answer. We are in Eastern Europe, but since 1948. we have not been part of the Eastern bloc and have never been part of the Soviet Union

Exclusive Interview: Matt Sorum, Guns N'Roses drummer

It's time to reunite

Matt adores fast cars , sun, sea, tattoo , pinball machines and of course, girls . And they adore him - and as he may not, he is famous and rich and as he says himself, he and Tommy Lee are "brothers in arms"!

In every band there is a frontman whom they identify with the band itself (singer or guitarist) and those unjustly neglected "background players" - bassist and drummer. In a big band like Guns N'Roses there seems to be room for all the members, but rarely anyone paying attention to Matt or Duff - desperately few interviews, on posters always in the background ... but the drummer and bass player are two titanium figures who usually stand between a melancholy or again-aggressive guitarist and a narcissistic singer. They give a rhythm to the band, give a foundation around which a distinctive sound is formed ... and in the end they remain neglected again. Except for Rock Express, which in this issue gives you an exclusive interview with Matt Sorum, drummer for Guns N'Roses. The condition for the interview was: no questions about G'n'R's future because Matt has only one answer - I don't know.

It's been a while since your last public appearance, including working with GnR. Tell me, what did you miss most during that period?

Well, it wasn't that much of a break, I did a little bit of everything, occasionally playing with others, working on my project, playing with Slash on his first solo album It's Five O'Clock Somewhere, and then played a part of his then tour of the Snakepit band, it's not like I was sitting and lounging all the time (laughs), but there was no particularly hard work. I don't know myself either. I think I miss touring the most. We went through the whole world and it was a really big moment in my life, playing in front of so many people, in so many different places. It can hardly be described, it needs to be experienced. I'm just sorry we never played in Russia because, as I understand it, GnR have a lot of fans here as well and I would like to see how audiences from the Eastern Bloc react. Now, of course, a lot has changed in Russia and I do not believe that the reaction of the audience in 1998 would be the same as if we had played in 1990. Admittedly, we played near Russia, Hungary and the Czech Republic. Israel and South America made the biggest impression on me.

How many cities have you played in?

If I'm not mistaken, 175 cities. And with just as many different reactions and emotions, each has something special and it cannot be forgotten. I love touring, touring is what I need, to be on the go. I love endless trips, transitions from hotel to hotel, new countries, new faces. I love this kind of life because it does not allow relaxation and man finds a lot of pleasure there, you are constantly on the move and there is always something new happening to you. The feeling that you can see the whole world with your own eyes is amazing, meeting new people ... and of course new girls (laughs) I think I was the only one working with G'n'R and could get to know the world so well.

Yes, girls. Speaking of girls, how are you?

In the third! (laughs) Happily divorced (laughs)

A hobby?

I collect sports cars. I have a Porsche, some old corvettes. I recently started collecting corvettes and dreaming of buying a Cobra one day, an old and very rare model.

An expensive hobby.

An expensive hobby, but I can afford it and as I said, I want to get the most out of my life. We have sold over 60 million records so I don't think how much money I have. Millions (laughs). But girls are my real hobby (laughs). I try to live life as much as possible, I love to travel, I love the sun and I try to be where it is as much as possible. In short, I enjoy life and strive to maximize my pleasure. My second hobby is pinball, I started playing pinball when Slash gave me a G'n'R pinball pin that he designed. He is really a fanatic and he invented a bunch of video games and pinball machines. In the G'n'R pinball player receives a bonus of 6 balls, as many musicians, and each bears one's name. The object of the game is to use as many of these bonus balls as possible. When you throw a ball where it belongs, the name that the ball bears appears on the screen. Of course, during that time, the music, Paradise City, came out of the pinball machine. No wonder all the big rock bands have their pinball machines. I was gifted this Slash pinball machine for my birthday. He is really a fanatic, he has about 20 pinball machines in the house, he goes crazy for them, he plays all day.

Your greatest pleasure is the sun, not the music!?!

No, it is my greatest pleasure to do what I love, to play rock in a good band, and to have someone listen to me. And the rest is already coming in itself. And it doesn't matter how much money I have, it is a personal pleasure for me to play the deadline and I can't imagine myself sitting and playing. Before leaving, I was invited to play in a small club, and you can't call it work for money, for if you compare the money I have made with G'n'R so far and that I could get a gig in clubs - it's hard yes a club can be a source of some colossal revenue but i still went and played at that club because i love to do it.

Since 1989, problems with drugs and alcohol have begun, the band is increasingly filling the columns of the yellow press, scandals are being resolved. Adler left the band because he couldn't "get off". How did you get over it?

Yes, G'n'R have had a lot of drug problems and from the earliest days, we started when we were 20 years old. It seems like an epidemic, everyone was doing it, or drugs or alcohol, or both. Maybe it all started with Led Zeppelin - Sex, drugs and R'n'R, maybe it didn't, but rock and narcotics always went hand in hand and we clashed with it, it was fashion. But now, from a distance, we look at it all differently.

When I got undressed and a year passed - and that is a long time - without the use of narcotics, I was very proud of myself for having endured so much and for realizing I could do without them. And I started to feel much, much better without them. While using narcotics, I thought that by doing so I could feel better, that I would be able to solve all problems so easily, and that, for example, I could recover and gather new energy. but in the morning when you wake up you see that the problems have not only disappeared but new ones have appeared and instead of getting better, you get worse and worse. When I stopped, my life changed from the root, I became more cheerful and more energetic, more to look forward to, to travel - to enjoy more, more resilient, fresher. I'm happier.

We haven't seen G'n'R together for a long time, so I think it would be interesting for you to tell us who you have the closest contact with.

With Duff. He is very close to me and probably the closest friend to the band. And Slash of course, Slash is an OK guy. In fact, I have many friends among musicians, Rob from Skid Row, Tommy Lee from Motley Crue. Tommy is one of my closest friends in general, a brother in arms (laughs). Admittedly, while he was with Pamela, I rarely saw him, I guess she didn't let him out of the bedroom (laughs).

Or from a yacht (laughs)?

I don't know, I wasn't there (laughs)

In 1991, G'n'R accomplished the grand project Use Your Illusion, a double album from which many good singles came out, but I think the most striking was You Could Be Mine and a video with Schwarzenegger. Tell me a little more about it.

Uh, that was life! Schwarzenegger called on the phone and said we should do something with that song because it is his favorite song from the album. The manager told him to call Axla and make an appointment with him. Axl, of course, decided to drag him down before agreeing, and told him: No Arnold, we CAN'T do anything together! (laughs) Arnold was in shock and silence, until Axl told him - Of course Arnold, for you all you want. OK - Schwarzenegger answered him, then we start tomorrow morning. We did a great job with him because he's really OK guy, he's not as tough as in the movies. As we were filming, he kept telling jokes and joking, no sign of the Terminator (laughs).

In the earlier photos from your early days in G'n'R, you didn't have any tattoos, and now you look more and more like Johhny Winter (laughs). When did you start tattooing?

Winter! (laughs) Well, I'm not exactly like Winter, he has no more room for new tattoos (laughs). Um, I didn't have any tattoos before I joined the band. And then once we were in Europe somewhere and someone said - let's tattoo in Europe. Then someone threw it again - let's tattoo Matt first, he's fresh (laughs). And then we went and everyone got tattooed in some salon, and I got my first tattoo - and I liked it. Here, on my right shoulder I have a Japanese drawing, and here on the other side something about a Viking theme. When I came back and when my friends saw me with tattoos, they had fun. Then they told me that I would start wearing leather jackets now, so a friend made me some silver ornaments, here is this chain attached to my wallet, for example. Like these earrings, that's what he did. I put them a few years ago, I put one on my chest, on the left side, one in the nose ... that hurt the most (laughs)!

Do you crave fashion or just kill time?

Well, these are all typical California goggles, sunglasses, silver, leather jackets and pants, then you sit in a sports car, raise the roof and brrrrrrrm all over Hollywood (laughs)!

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Matt talks about being wealthy here. Seems like Matt has always been open about his desire for wealth. His video interview alongside Duff at his first RIR(?) or show(?) comes to mind, where he's calculating the ticket price multiplied by the amount of people. And in another interview from post 94 he talks about customizing his mansion and tricking it out.

Good for him, I just note it since I cant recall any other member talking so openly about the money. With the general Guns ethos being more summed up by Slash's pre reunion assurance that a regrouping woukdnt be about the money - its about the art, man.

Like I say, if he wants paper, get the paper. But it is nice to see him pursuing a new band Deadland Ritual that creates original music and plays smaller venues, also.

1

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Matt talks about being wealthy here. Seems like Matt has always been open about his desire for wealth. His video interview alongside Duff at his first RIR(?) or show(?) comes to mind, where he's calculating the ticket price multiplied by the amount of people. And in another interview from post 94 he talks about customizing his mansion and tricking it out.

Good for him, I just note it since I cant recall any other member talking so openly about the money. With the general Guns ethos being more summed up by Slash's pre reunion assurance that a regrouping woukdnt be about the money - its about the art, man.

Like I say, if he wants paper, get the paper. But it is nice to see him pursuing a new band Deadland Ritual that creates original music and plays smaller venues, also.

I think hes alot different now. J get the vibe on his insta photos that playing music and his marriage seem to be what he enjoys the most. I remember seeing an inst photo with his wife and driving an old 60s mustang. Maybe hes getting into the simplistic ways of life, who knows what his headspace is. He drummed for my 2 favourite bands, gnr and the cult and deserves whatever mula comes his way.